A riveting read

Tapping on the experience of experts, the book titled ‘Designing Hospitals of the Future’, presents a large number of illustrations, examples and designs on both basic and advanced subjects in hospital architecture; right from examination, treatment and nursing care to green building and Vaastu. The book has a wealth of photographs and floor plans on some of the best designed hospitals, not only in India but also abroad. The entire book facilitates easy comparison of different hospitals in terms of size, function and design approach.

In a time, when there are quite a number of books available on healthcare architecture, Designing Hospitals of the Future takes a visionary approach on the entire space of healthcare architecture and takes a fresh perspective on the overall design guidelines for the hospital. As rightly pointed out, the book presents an example of designing hospitals that may be considered the most consummate way of designing hospital that meets holistic – physical, emotional and psychological – needs of patients, their families and visitors, not to mention the needs of staff and workers. The entire book stresses on the element of creating an optimal healing environment and rather than aesthetic approach, takes a completely functional approach to the entire hospital design.

The book starts with an excellent piece on Planning Hospitals of the future by Richard Sprow, AIA, Principal of Perkins Eastman with more than 30 years experience in healthcare planning and design. The ‘ten ideas driving new hospital planning’ provide basic framework to conceptually design a new hospital and helps any planner take a more holistic approach to design a facility in which the entire environment is geared towards healing. In addition, the first chapter also mentions the space plan of some futuristic hospitals. To help in project planning and execution, the chapter describes different stages in the construction of a hospital building.

The book discusses in detail the circulation and traffic plan of a hospital (both inside and outside. Specific traffic flows in relation to some major services such as nursing services, surgical suites and labour and delivery suites have also been elaborated. Creating a healing environment, characterises a patient-centric hospital, which is the need of the hour.

In fact, it goes a step further and highlights the fact that today patients too demand that they be treated in their totality and not simply as ‘medical cases’. In pursuance of this concept, the new age hospitals feature natural light, gardens, fountains, aquariums and music to meet the emotional needs of the patients.

One of the key strengths of the new edition is that it includes contributions from outside the mainstream hospital design, for instance the sections on hospital branding and logo provides very clear guidelines on creating a hospital brand.

Another key highlight of the book is the section on evidence based architecture. It essentially describes the parameters to be assessed and has been supported by illustrations. In times, when more and more people are talking about infection control, the book does ample justice to the topic as well, including its implications on the hospital design.

The book is divided in eighteen distinct chapters and covers fresh elements such as emerging trends in healthcare, green hospital movement: building eco-friendly hospitals and Vaastu in a healthcare setting. The chapter on emerging trends in healthcare covers latest equipment and also some of the latest surgery techniques such as robotic surgeries. It also talks about palliative care, acupuncture and ambulatory care centres. Unlike other literature on green buildings, the chapter on green buildings and eco friendly hospitals talks about tangible benefits that such a hospital can achieve. It also covers LEED accreditation in much greater detail.

The book takes an extremely scientific approach on Vaastu and the importance of five elements in the design – water, fire, sky, earth and air. The chapter on Vaastu also highlights the importance of type of soil and treatment of various areas such as reception, consultation rooms, operation theatres, pharmacy and others.

The chapter on Feng Shui: Home and hospital healing using Feng Shui is extremely interesting. In today’s context, Feng Shui is commonly used to locate houses or change the atmosphere inside a building or home. The way author has related Feng Shui with quantum physics and ultimately with designing a caregiver environment brings in a lot of richness in the content.

It is based on the fundamental belief that the land is more important than the house and the house or hospital is more important than the occupant, therefore setting up the environment for healing is extremely important in supporting the occupant in the process of healing. Some of the applications of Feng Shui in hospital relate to sound, incense and lighting.

Interior design for healthcare, Chapter 18 in the book describes the key points to consider when designing the interiors of the hospital. The author has grouped all parameters under eight concepts to consider when creating a healing environment. Most of us while designing a hospital fail to understand some of the unique challenges in interior designing, which the chapter captures in a fresh perspective. The chapter takes an entirely functional approach to interior design and covers areas such as cleanliness and infection control, utilisation of nature, designing a noiseless environment and appropriateness of colors and applications and their effect on patients. Apart from this, it also covers the nature and type of material and the texture to be used in different zones in the hospital.

Throughout the book, every chapter is interspersed with illustrations, which include actual layouts, designs and photographs of some world-class facilities. The case studies of New York Hospital Queens, New York, Embassy Medical Center, Colombo, Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Tata Medical Center, Kolkata and Medanta Medicity, Gurgaon among others help the reader better understand every detail discussed in the book. In fact, all these keep the reader highly engaged, are truly refreshing and help the reader actually visualise an ideal facility.

The last chapter of the book on rejuvenating and modernising ageing and antiquated hospitals is particularly relevant to people who are willing to modernise their set up to keep up with the time. It basically answers the question of what do we do with hospitals which are ageing and are saddled with out of date equipment and facilities and how to reenergise them to meet the requirements of the present times.

The chapter talks about some of the classic examples of hospitals across the globe that have set examples on economising resources, particularly energy conservation when compared to some of the best new age hospitals. The chapter talks about a couple of detailed case studies as well. The section on retrofitting antiquated hospitals is particularly interesting. In fact some of the examples illustrate the fact how even existing hospitals can be refurbished and recharged to meet the requirements of modern medicine and NABH/JCI standards without sacrificing functionality or demolishing existing structures.

The book serves as an invaluable guide and a quick reference for different stakeholders in healthcare who are willing to understand more about modern healthcare architecture. The book in fact makes healthcare architecture simpler for different people willing to start their own set up.